Posted on 11/02/2011 11:00:59 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
So far, neither of the two alleged complainants from Herman Cain’s tenure at the National Restaurant Association have come forward publicly, although it appears at least one would like NRA to release her from her confidentiality agreement to do so. However, a pollster who worked for NRA at the time told KTOK in Oklahoma that he witnessed both incidents — and that if the women talk, Cain’s candidacy would be over:
Interviewed today on KTOK’s Mullins in the Morning, [Chris] Wilson, of Wilson-Perkins-Allen Opinion Research headquartered in Washington, D.C. explained he was a witness to the incident. “I was the pollster at the National Restaurant Association when Herman Cain was head of it and I was around a couple of times when this happened and anyone who was involved with the NRA at the time, knew that this was gonna come up.”
Wilson described the woman as a low level staffer who was maybe two years out of college. “This occurred at a restaurant in Crystal City (Virginia) and everybody was aware of it,” he continued. “It was only a matter of time because so many people were aware of what took place, so many people were aware of her situation, the fact she left—everybody knew with the campaign that this would eventually come up.”
Wilson claims that he also can’t discuss the specifics, for legal reasons. I’m not quite clear as to what that might be. He may have signed a broad non-disclosure agreement with NRA to get the polling work, but if that’s the case, he just violated it with this statement today. Unless he also participated in the settlement/severance agreements with the women, he’s as free to discuss the details as the fact that he witnessed them. And it’s difficult to see how Wilson would have been involved in a settlement between NRA and the two employees.
However, Wilson isn’t only linked to NRA and Cain from years gone by. His firm has conducted polling in this presidential race for the Make Us Great Again PAC. And guess which candidate is favored by MUGA-PAC? Why, none other than … Rick Perry. The PAC has no formal connection to Perry’s campaign, but it’s certainly boosting Perry as the Republican nominee in the primary.
Could Wilson be more than just a witness in this story? Could he be a source? It could just be a coincidence that a witness to these alleged incidents did work for an organization pushing Perry, and that the story mysteriously got to Politico as Cain took support away from Perry in mid-October. If he is the source, then conducting an interview on the topic has to be one of the dumber political moves I’ve seen.
Update: Some are saying that this indicates Romney as the source of the leak, but I’m not terribly convinced that a one-time donation means much. Romney has less to fear with Cain as his main opponent than others in the race, and besides, no one knows whether Anderson ever knew about the incidents at all. Other board members say they didn’t. YMMV, however.
He was on Fox yesterday speaking in support of Romney. What does that make DeMint/Demented? Tomatoe, Tomato, Potatoe, Potato. They're both RINO's.
Do you know anything about the legal structure called a corporation? If the CEO, any director, officer or manager were guilty of sexaul harassment towards an employee, throughout the course of their work responsibilties in the workplace, and at offical functions tht take place outside the place of work, the corporation can be held liable. The individual perpetrator can also be prosecuted and sued individually. If Mr. Cain was guilty of whatever it is he is being accused of, the RNA would have dropped him like a hot potato to head off any corporate liability issues. That the RNA did not ask for Mr. Cain's resignation speaks to the lack of credibility of the accusors.
Seriously? I thought he was a tea party guy.
I did not hear him offer an offical endorsement of Romney, but he was talking up Romney while blasting Mr. Cain. I too was suprised and a little disappointed.
The Republicans are clearly going to need a Plan B if none of these candidates survives.
Then maybe that should have been his initial and subsequent response. “I have been in leadership positions at several large organizations, and baseless lawsuits come with the territory. Many of these lawsuits are handled routinely by the organization’s legal staff, and I am unaware of the details of this (or any other) particular legal claim against me.”
There; I wrote this in 90 seconds, and wouldn’t have charged Cain a dime for it.
Cain chief-of-staff walks back Perry accusations
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2802083/posts
Another FR thread is linking the smears to Rahm Emmanuel.
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